So Farewell Then Sideshow Birb

While our free and fearless press was slapping the biggest dead cat its collective talents could muster on the nearest table over the latest Royal revelations yesterday, not only was the grim state of the country ignored once more, but news that might have embarrassed those out there on the right managed to sneak out almost unnoticed. Except by the BBC.

Katharine Birbalsingh

The Beeb, for once, reported straight the departure from the stage of one of the right’s greatest heroines: as the report told, “The government's top social mobility adviser has quit, saying she was doing ‘more harm than good’ in the role. Katharine Birbalsingh, who has been dubbed Britain's strictest head teacher, has attracted controversy since being appointed in November 2021”.

There was more. “She said her ‘propensity to voice opinions that are considered controversial’ was putting the commission ‘in jeopardy’ … She added she had become increasingly cautious about what she said”. For instance? “She also came under fire last April for saying girls are less likely to choose physics A-level because it involves ‘hard maths’ - later admitting her remarks had been ‘clunky’”. Clunky is the new unthinking and witless.

But she did occasionally call things right. The only problem is that her right wing backers didn’t want to hear it. “In June last year, she criticised Boris Johnson, describing the former prime minister as a ‘bad role model for children’ that sometimes didn't look ‘professional enough’”.

Understatement, much? But allied to the “clunky” episodes and occasionally telling her most ardent supporters what they didn’t want to hear was Ms Birbalsingh’s tendency to bring attention to herself in the most unfortunate ways. Like advertising a Churchill quote that was never uttered by The Great Man. Or inviting a figure from the far right into her school.

That figure from the far right was none other than Jordan Peterson. Who denies that racism exists, and that white privilege isn’t a thing. He stands accused of dabbling in eugenics. He discussed intelligence and race with Stefan Molyneux. Then there were his very quotable views on women.

“Feminists support the rights of Muslims because of their ‘unconscious wish for brutal male domination’ … The idea that women were oppressed throughout history is an appalling theory”. But one person rushed to her defence over the visit, “Father” Calvin Robinson, a regular on Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”), who dishonestly responded “Such targeted hatred. The woke Left seem to think she’s the devil”.

Criticism is not hatred. And criticism is what Ms Birbalsingh received in significant amounts over the fake Churchill quote, which she had had painted on a wall in her free school. In response, as with the Jordan Peterson visit, she became appallingly defensive. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it’s the courage that counts” was the quote. And Winshton did not say it.

But that did not deter Sideshow Birb, who even added a commentary: "We believe in children being courageous, in all of us being courageous, and the point of that Churchill quote is to say, ‘look - don’t think hooray, I got the eight that I wanted on the GCSE, it’s all done, because success is final, and don’t think when you fail at something, that failure is fatal’. It’s about being courageous all the way through”. Then came realisation that she was wrong.

The Tweeter known as Otto English had the bad news. “Britain's strictest Head teacher [Katharine Birbalsingh] has a fake Churchill quote on her school wall. Nowhere in the canon of Churchill's writing or speeches did he say this. Suggest you get some paint”. And Ms Birbalsingh’s response?

“Now they are calling for apologies for any mistake we make as a school. We make several mistakes a day. We learn from them and move on. I suggest you all do the same”. Who’s calling for apologies? “Lots of people”. Moreover, “I won’t bow to the mob and give you the repentance you want. Indeed I raise an eyebrow at it”. She’s still big. It’s the criticism that got small.

But, ultimately, the defensiveness was off the scale: “Well of course it was a mistake! Isn’t that obvious? It is the insistence on a crucifixion that is disturbing and weird”. Who insisted on a crucifixion? Who even mentioned it? Who knows? And, indeed, who cares? Not so much “voicing opinions that are controversial”, more being a total embarrassment.

Another right-wing favourite not up to the job. No change there, then.

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